


uplifted into infinite space

by owlinaminor



Category: Venom (Movie 2018)
Genre: Introspection, Other, Relationship Study
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-31
Updated: 2018-10-31
Packaged: 2019-08-11 03:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,006
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16467461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/owlinaminor/pseuds/owlinaminor
Summary: “Why did you choose me?” Eddie asks.





	uplifted into infinite space

**Author's Note:**

> last weekend, i saw this absolute miracle clusterfuck of a movie. today, we talked about trascendentalism in my american lit class. somehow, this fic was the result.
> 
> title and opening quote are both from [emerson's 'nature'](https://archive.vcu.edu/english/engweb/transcendentalism/authors/emerson/essays/naturetext.html).

 

> _There I feel that nothing can befall me in life – no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair._

 

“Why did you choose me?” Eddie asks.

The question is lost at first, torn from his throat by the wind, the sky, the space between the trees, the shifting water below.  He isn’t sure why he had to come up here to ask it, up to this edge of the forest, edge of the world, where the redwoods watch over the sea.  He came here with Anne once, when he was trying to find the right place to propose.  She didn’t like all the dirt and rocks in the path, the thick red bark she claimed was watching them falter up the hill.

“Redwoods have better shit to worry about than us,” he’d said, and launched into an explanation of how climate change threatens northern forests.  (He’d been profiling a group of botanists at the time.)  But now, he’s not so sure.  There’s one tree by the edge of the clearing, barely a yard away from the edge, that’s shorter than the others but thicker, trunk a dark mahogany where it splits into a cavernous hole near the base.  The bark is rough as an old man’s beard and thick, as though this tree has been sleeping on this cliff for centuries, not noticing or not caring as the edge creeps closer.

_Why did you choose me?_

The question is lost at first but no vocal chords are needed for this, Venom slips out from Eddie’s chest and curls at his shoulder, warm and slick as sunlight pouring through an open window at dawn.

**Who else would I choose?  You were there.**

Eddie sighs.  He reaches one hand up to lightly scratch at Venom’s head, poking just beneath his collarbone.

“Yeah, but you could’ve ditched me.  Once we got out of the facility and into the city.  There were so many other people who would’ve been stronger, or smarter, or – I dunno.  A better match.”

Venom curls tighter, becomes almost contiguous with his skin.  An impenetrable sheet of armor, dark yet shining faintly in the light of the late afternoon sun, slowly dropping to meet the deep gray waves.

**You are the best match.**

“But how could you know?  You haven’t tried anyone else.  Besides Anne, I guess.”

**I know.**

“But –”

And he’s spinning – still perched on a rock at the edge of the ocean, still the cool stone beneath his jeans, the wind on his face, the scent of bark and moss, the call of seagulls – but his mind is pulled back to a dark basement all glass and strange beeping and fast-familiar screams – and then suddenly a new silhouette in the darkness backlit by Maria’s cries for help – a door opens and the silhouette fills – he can stretch again.  This heartbeat is unlike the others.  This rhythm is erratic, anxious, a new genre, this mind is cluttered and yet perfectly clear.  _There are good people and there are bad people._   He opens the door, he fights back, his voice is low and nervous as his heartbeat but there’s a current behind it, a humming electricity that we feel with the wind that first time we climb.  We find the edges where we’ve been shattered, sharp glass like a beer bottle smashed on the sidewalk – we find edges where we can fit together – and we hum and fight and learn and eat and expand and – _let’s go save the world –_

No space for _I_ anymore, only  _we,_  only our arms stretching out to meet.

Eddie comes back slowly to the forest above the sea.  The smooth stone beneath his jeans, the wind tearing at his throat, the endless blue sky.  His arms are getting goosebumps – maybe he should’ve put a jacket on top of his usual hoodie – but his chest is warm, Venom vibrating just beneath his skin like a second heartbeat.

He stands and steps forward, his feet crunching in the dead leaves, until he’s face to face with the short, stout tree at the cliff’s edge.  He reaches one hand out to touch the bark – rough, as he’d suspected, but steady somehow, as though all the storms this tree has weathered are contained still inside, humming three layers down.  And Eddie realizes, running his fingertips over cracks and moss and cool lichen, that this is in fact two trees, grown into each other for god knows how many years.  The cavern between them is not a hole but a home, a space to be filled.  As Eddie reaches up to grab a branch, leaves nipping at his palms, something slips out into the underbrush – brushes up against his ankle –

_shit –_

He barely has time to register the snake before he’s slipped and tumbling towards the edge – wind pushing ocean roaring limbs flailing –

**Clumsy.**

Venom flicks out a tendril and pulls them back to safe ground with a jolt.  Eddie lies there on his back for a moment, his head cushioned by the leaves.  It’s cold here, but a calmer cold than the wind.  More refreshing, like A/C on full blast in the summer.

**Hey.**

Venom hovers just above Eddie, shimmering faintly with poorly disguised concern.

“I’m good, I’m good.”  Eddie shifts to fold his arms behind his back and closes his eyes, smiles up at the sky.  “You got me.”

Venom reaches down a tendril and pulls him back to his feet.  Eddie turns back to face the edge of the cliff – the tree is the same as ever, standing silent against the wind.  Venom brushes over his face, his neck, picks leaves from his hair.

**You’ve got dirt on your face.**

Eddie shrugs.  “I’ll take a shower when we get home.”

As they turn back to the path and start heading down to where they left the bike, Venom curls up against Eddie’s cheek in a quiet kiss.

**You got it, right?  Why I chose you.**

_Yeah._   Eddie smiles, and lets the warmth spread through them.  _I got it._

**Author's Note:**

> is _venom_ postmodernism? bitch it just might be.
> 
> come yell at me for my insanity on [twitter](https://twitter.com/owlinaminor).


End file.
